STATE OF WASHINGTON
ETHICS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
OPINION NO. 00-7
Question
Is a part-time judicial officer disqualified from
presiding over cases involving a litigant who is also a
party to a lawsuit in which one of the defendants is a
deputy prosecuting attorney who supervises the judicial
officer in the capacity as deputy prosecuting attorney?
The judicial officer is a part-time municipal court
judge and also employed as a county deputy prosecuting
attorney. At the prosecutor’s office, the judicial officer
handles criminal appeals, provides general advice to the
civil division of the sheriff’s office and is not involved
in either criminal or civil litigation at the trial court
level.
A criminal complaint has been filed in the municipal
court where the part-time judicial officer presides. The
defendant in that matter has filed a number of lawsuits in
both state and federal court against various government
entities and officials.
The same defendant has also recently filed a civil
lawsuit which named a deputy prosecuting attorney as a
defendant. That deputy prosecuting attorney is the
supervisor of the part-time judicial officer at the
prosecutor’s office.
The part-time judicial officer has no involvement in
the lawsuit and as a prosecuting attorney will not be
appearing as an attorney for any of the defendants. No one
in the prosecutor’s office has consulted with the judicial
officer about the lawsuit. The judicial officer’s only
familiarity with the lawsuit comes from reading the
complaint.
Answer
CJC Canon 3(D)(1) provides that judges should
disqualify themselves in a proceeding in which their
impartiality might reasonably be questioned. The fact that
a criminal defendant has filed a lawsuit wherein someone in
the prosecuting attorney’s office is named does not require
the judicial officer’s disqualification. The criminal case
over which the judicial officer would be presiding is not
related in any way to the pending civil lawsuit. The
judicial officer is not a party to the lawsuit and does not
have any personal knowledge about it. The judicial officer
should disclose that he or she is a part-time employee in
the prosecutor’s office at the time the criminal matter
comes up for hearing but is not disqualified from hearing
it.